Photos: Alan Campbell Photography
Belfast Zoo is delighted to announce the arrival of four new meerkats who moved into their new habitat on Monday.
The family has quickly adapted to their new surroundings, and visitors can already spot them exploring their environment and interacting with their new home.
Two meerkats arrived at Belfast Zoo in January and after settling in, the meerkats surprised the team with the birth of two adorable babies.
Zoo keeping staff are thrilled with the meerkats progress and are delighted to see the parents embracing their new parental roles. The babies are healthy and strong and have been independently exploring their new home under the watchful eyes of their attentive parents.
Meerkats are a burrowing member of the mongoose family that are recognisable for their upright posture. Meerkats are incredibly social animals, and you can always spot at least one of them standing guard and keeping a lookout for predators.
They live in cooperative packs, called a mob, of up to fifty individuals with one female alpha who will be the only female in the group that will mate.
“We are delighted that the meerkats have settled so comfortably into their new home at Belfast Zoo,” said Alyn Cairns, Zoo Manager at Belfast Zoo.
“The pair have already welcomed two new pups (infants) which is a true testament to how happy they are with the Belfast facilities. The zoo has been keeping and breeding meerkats for many years and we are especially looking forward to seeing the mob expand to numbers that would be similar to a wild setting.”
The new meerkats and their babies can be seen daily at their new habitat, which is designed to closely mimic their natural habitat. Visitors can enjoy watching the family interact, dig tunnels, and explore.